Did the ancient Egyptians leave anaccount of the Red Sea (Yam Suf) crossing?Most people who have studied this would respond, “But the ancient Egyptians never monumentalized their defeats.” Yes, and today no one is expecting to find an ancient Egyptian inscription that says, “The God of the Hebrew slaves beat us up.” However, there is an Egyptian legend (not the el-Arish Shrine) that does more than just lend itself to the sea crossing by Israel. It is about a battle that the Egyptian “gods” fought, and in this particular battle, the “good god,” who represents Egypt loses, and the “bad god,” who represents the foreigners wins, and it takes place at the bottom of the sea! And what is of more interest is that this takes place right in front of the four place names of the Red Sea/Yam Suf crossing, as given in Exodus 14:2! (Pi-hahiroth, Migdol, Baal-zephon, and “the sea.”) But because this Egyptian account was said to have happened in an unexpected location, it has been passed over. What follows is an abbreviated account of our book EXODUS, the footnotes are in the book.

Is it true we will “never” find the stations of Exodus? Yes it is true, if we keep looking in the same places! Today there are more than a dozen locations for Mount Sinai and five main locations for the Red Sea crossing (see map to left and A-E locations). Some of these proposed sites are over a hundred miles apart, forcing the route and the encampments for the Exodus to different locations. Something must be fundamentally wrong to have such a divergence of opinions. There is. They started from the wrong place, the East Delta! There are four ancient sources that have Moses or the children of Israel on the west side of the Nile.*“Now they took their journey by Letopolis” (west side of the Nile, Josephus, Antiq. II, 15, 1). Josephus even had this at the southern end of Letopolis, across from where Cairo would later be built, which would make it right in front of the Sphinx and Great Pyramid! (Please see Why Not the East Delta, "Section C", at the top of page.)

Josephus also said, “[T]hey set them [Israel] also to build pyramids...” (Antiq. II, 9:1) Few today believe what Josephus said about Israel building pyramids, but pyramids were built up to the time of Ahmose, of the 18th Dynasty, and all of the pyramids are on the west side of the Nile. Eusebius of Caesarea (263–339 AD) quoting Artapanus (200 BC), also has Israel leave from the west side of the Nile: (Praeparatio Evangelica, Book IX, Ch. XXVII, though he has Israel crossing the branches of the Delta, which would have been a disaster for their flocks and children). He also has the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh taking place at Memphis, again on the west side of Nile (Book IX, Chapter 27:12-17), as does Philo (20 BC-50 AD,The Life of Moses, I, XX, 118) and John, Bishop of Nikiu (7th century AD, Chronicle, Ch. 30:2). *(Goshen was on both sides of the Nile Delta but the children of Israel would have been later moved to the west side after they became salves. The Bible tells us that the king of Egypt was afraid of them. “Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest theymultiply, and it come to pass, that, when there fallethout any war, they join also unto our enemies, andfight against us, and so get them up out of the land” (Exodus 1:10). Most of Egypt’s enemies were on the east side of the Delta, and if the Egyptians were afraid of Israel joining their enemies, it would make perfect sense to move them to the west side of the Nile and farther away from their Promised Land. See Why Not the East Delta (at top of page), "Section A & B".

... The Annual Flood Before dams were built across the Nile, the Delta would flood every year for five months and become a sea. The villages in the Delta were built up on mounds, and looked like islands in a sea. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Pyramid Texts there is a place that is often mentioned called the “Field of Rushes” (papyrus). These myths were of their “gods” and their Egyptian heaven. The Egyptians associated heaven with things on earth that they were familiar with, and their heaven had both the Nile River and the Delta. At some point during the annual flood, the Egyptians referred to the “Field of Rushes” as a "Lake of Rushes". (Horus in the Pyramid Text, by Thomas George Allen, pp. 29 & 43)
﻿Modern Egyptians commonly call the Nile River El-Bahr, “The Sea”!﻿

There has been much debate about the names “Red” Sea or “Reed” Sea. However, those who believe the sea Israel crossed was shallow water either do not know the Bible or simply do not believe it, as this body of water is called “the waters of the greatdeep” (Isaiah 51:10). “And the daughter ofPharaoh came down to wash herself at the
river; andher maidens walked along by the river’s side; andwhen
she saw the ark among the flags, she sent hermaid to fetch it” (Exodus
2:5). The “flags” (reeds) in this verse is the word “suf” and is
the same word translated “Red” from Red Sea in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the New Testament, there are two times where the sea Israel crossed is called the “Red” Sea in the Greek (Acts 7:35 and Hebrews 11:29), and this cannot be translated “reed” as in the Hebrew Yam Suph. Some believe the New Testament was following the lead of the Septuagint, also written in Greek, and which gave “Red Sea” for the Hebrew Yam Suph, but “All scripture isgiven by inspiration of God…” (II Timothy 3:16), not inspiration of the Septuagint. To say that because it was called a reed sea it therefore must be shallow water is like saying the Red Sea must be red, but it is blue like any other sea. Names are given for different reasons and names change. It is also possible to have more than one name for a location. The Sea of Galilee (Matthew 4:18) is also called the “Sea of Tiberias” (John 16:1), also “lake of Gennesaret” (Luke 5:1), and in the Hebrew Scriptures the “sea of Chinnereth” (Numbers 34:11). And so in the Hebrew Scriptures the sea Israel crossed is called the Yam Suf (sea of reeds) and 1,500 years later in the Greek New Testament it is called the Red Sea.

The border of Egypt. When referring
to countries or seas mentioned in the Bible, remember that the boundary
lines on today’s maps are not the same as in the days of Moses. When you
look at a map and view the Red Sea, Egypt, Arabia, or Ethiopia, their locations are
where they are today.
Some of the modern paintings of Christ are not those of a first-century
Jew. Christ was a Jew by His mother, not the long, blond-haired, blue-eyed
Anglo-Saxon that some have imagined. If the reader is not open to looking at
God’s Word and the ancient Jewish sources (that place things in different
locations), then some things will be forced and he will be looking in the wrong
places. I believe the biggest hindrance to accepting this route, and therefore
the Red Sea crossing along with the location of Mount Sinai, will not
be because of a lack of evidence, but fighting the traditional “Anglo-Saxon”
diagram some have imagined was the route of the Exodus. The sea Israel crossed. My purpose
here is to show where these ancient writers would place these names not to
agree with their theology, for in some cases I strongly disagree. And even if
one does not accept where these ancient texts place these locations, it cannot
be denied that those who wrote them believe their accounts, and they have the
Nile going into the sea known in the Hebrew as the Yam Suph, given as “Red Sea” in the English.Legends of the Jews, when speaking of the ark of baby Moses that
Miriam put in the Nile, said it was the Red Sea! “And then she abandoned the
ark on the shores ofthe Red Sea” (vol. II, Moses Rescued from the
Water). Babylonian Talmud (3rd century AD),
also believed the placement of Moses’s ark was in the “Yam Suf” (Sotah 12a). The Qur’an
also calls the crossing place the Red
Sea; however, one Islam prophet explains that this was the Nile River!
His name is Prophet Shu’ayb, and this is found in Hay Al Qulub vol. I, Stories of the prophets, section 13, “An Account of Musa (Moses) and Harun” (Aaron).
The pertinent parts are: “Musa and the Israelitescame to the bank of
the river Nile. The water ofriver split and made a way to cross the
river…andthe last man of the Pharaoh entered into the river.Allah
ordered the wind to move the water and themountain of water fell on
them.” The ancient Targums, Jonathan and Jerusalem
(Aramaic translations of the Pentateuch), both connect the Nile to the Red
Sea/Yam Suph: “and theGihon had carried
into the sea of Suph….” (Josephus and many other ancient Jewish
and Christian writers have "Gihon" as the Nile River.) The same for the Dead Sea Scrolls,
the Genesis Apocryphon (2nd–1st century BC): “I
proceeded by the Red Sea until I reached the extension of the Reed Sea which
goes out from the Red Sea, and then I turned southward, until I reached the
Gihon River….” The person in this account was already on the “Red Sea” and goes to the “extension” of it, which he calls the “Reed Sea,” and then to the Nile, or “Gihon.” He is telling us that in his
day the Red Sea was....(see page 113 of EXODUS: The Route, Sea Crossing, God's Mountain)

The Exodus of Israel was about three months before the annual flood. The sea that Israel crossed was the result of an early flood of the Delta from the seventh plague, “[T]he hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.” (Exodus 9:24) Not only was this plague “very grievous”, but the worst that had ever hit Egypt, and it was in “all” the land. “[A]ll the land” of Egypt included from the city of Syene (Ezekiel 29:10), 600 miles south of Memphis. This seventh plague was more than hail; it also rained. “And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD: and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased....” (Exodus 9:33-34)

It takes ten days for the flood-waters from Syene to reach the Delta; it would then take several more days for the Nile Valley, which also floods (two miles or more on both sides of the Nile), to drain back into the Nile and into the Delta. All this time ancient Lake Moeris, which would have also been flooded, and normally relieved the flood-waters of the Nile, would instead be dumping water into the Nile, making the flood worse. Ussher's chronology has the seventh plague happening on the 5th of Abid; the Israelites leave on the 15th of the same month.

Israel
left Egypt before she
came to Succoth.
There has been much speculation about where the children of Israel crossed the
border of Egypt. “And it came topass the selfsame day, that
the LORD did bringthe children of Israel out of the land of Egypt bytheir armies” (Exodus
12:17, 41, 51). Gesenius’ Lexicon
gives “in that very day” for the expression “selfsame day.” The
Bible says when they left that first day, they also left Egypt! When the Bible
talks of the “mixed” group that also left with Israel, it says, “And
a mixed multitude went up also withthem…” (Exodus 12:38). It
was not necessary to again say they left, as the idea was conveyed in the
expression they “went up.” This “went up” is talking about
leaving Egypt, and so we have a double declaration in Exodus 13:18, “thechildren of Israel went up harnessed out of the landof Egypt.” It was not necessary to cross the Sinai Peninsula and then the Gulf of
Aqaba in order to leave Egypt. It is true that the Egyptians had some control
of the Sinai Peninsula and also had mines there, but Israel left Egypt before
they ever reached the Peninsula. Israel left Egypt on that first day: the “selfsame
day” they went “out of theland of Egypt.”
The classical writers referred to the hills above the Nile valley as Arabia
on the east, and Libya on the west. These hills, or cliffs, rise to a
height of 100 to 800 feet. Herodotus (Greek historian, 440 BC), “As one proceeds beyond Heliopolis up the
country [south], Egypt becomes narrow, theArabian range of
hills, which has a direction fromnorth to south, shutting it in
upon the one side, andthe Libyan range upon the other.”
(History, II) Strabo (1st
century AD) said, “From Heliupolis [Heliopolis is at the apex ofthe Nile Delta], then, one comes to the Nile abovethe
Delta. Of this, the parts on right [west], as onesails up
[south], are called Libya...whereas those on theleft [east] Rome called
Arabia.” (Geography, XVII, 30) So how did the children of Israel
leave Egypt on a one day’s march from Goshen? They went up to the hills above the
Nile valley, and therefore into what the ancients called the Libyan Desert.
Officially, they had left Egypt. AfterIsrael left from the land of Rameses Israel first goes to Succoth. (See Why Not the East Delta, at top of page, "Section A", for why it was not the city of Rameses) 1.
In
Numbers 33:3, the children of Israel left Rameses and traveled to Succoth. And
the Bible says Israel left Egypt “in the sightof all the Egyptians” (Numbers
33:3b). For such an expression to be used, they would have been close by a
large population of Egyptians. If Israel passed by a small town east of the
Delta out on the desert, no one would say, “in the sight of all the Egyptians.” But if
they left near the biggest city in the country (Memphis), which was known to have many
other towns around it, and if all came out while they left, one could use such
an expression.

2.
So why would “all” the Egyptians have
come out while Israel was leaving? “For the
Egyptians buried all their firstborn…”
(Numbers 33:4). The Bible says every Egyptian family lost someone and they all
would have gone to bury their dead. It will not take weeks to do this as it
sometimes could for mummification. Most of the rituals, ceremonies, and
mummifications would have been precluded as every family, including those who
would normally hold the funerals, now went to the cemetery with their own loss.
The Book of Jasher (the date is not certain but its preface claims 70 AD.) says,
“all the Egyptians buried their slain for
three days” (Jasher 81:6). So all the Egyptians would have been there
preparing graves and arrangements the best they could when Israel showed
up. The Egyptians did not just bury their
dead anywhere because they, as we do today, had cemeteries. Now the largest
cemetery in Egypt was Saqqara, which was on a ridge overlooking Memphis.
Several kings were buried there, and a number of pyramids were built there. So,
we have “all” the Egyptians seeing the children of Israel, “for” they
were burying their dead. All the Egyptians were going to the cemetery and would
have been there by the time Israel arrived. It would have been quite a scene:
the Egyptians mourning all their firstborn, and the children of Israel in the
same place, on their first day of freedom, but instead of burying someone, they
were removing a body—Joseph’s.

3. In Exodus 12,
which deals with Israel leaving Egypt, it is clear that they had a motive to go
to Succoth; they had to get Joseph’s body. Joseph was the great patriarch who
had saved Israel, Egypt, and all the surrounding nations from starvation
(Genesis 41:57). Before he died, Joseph had made the children of Israel promise
that they would take his bones back to the land of Canaan when they left Egypt.
In
Exodus 12:37, Israel had arrived at Succoth, and in Exodus 13:19, Moses took
the bones of Joseph, and in the next verse, Israel left Succoth. Succoth must
have been a place of burial! This last point is seldom mentioned in connection
with the site of Succoth, but the first two points I have never seen mentioned:
that “all” the Egyptians saw them, and that it was because (“for”)
they were burying their dead, which would have been at a cemetery! These three
points do not fit with the routes the others have chosen or the locations they give
for Succoth.
Most
believe the name Saqqara (Arabic), which was the cemetery of Memphis, was
originally named after Sokar, the Egyptian god of the dead. One problem with
this belief is that in the name Sokar the r
is silent, whereas in the Arabic name Saqqara, the r is not silent. (There is not a united opinion on where the name came from or if the final r was silent.) However, for the Hebrews, the Egyptian god named Sokar is Sk (silent r, and no vowels when written) could have sounded to them as Succoth, Sccth for Sk. As I said in the introduction, I am no scholar in the original languages, but it at least looks more likely than the Egyptian place name of Tjeku, which some scholars say was what the Hebrews heard when they wrote Succoth. The Tj in Tjeku could, as I understand it, sound like s, and out of all the other routes for the Exodus, Tjeku is the best they have. Though the name Succoth means “booths” or “tents,” archaeologists will still use it for sites not connected to its meaning. “It is not at allsurprising that the Hebrew word should mean tents.We have here an example of what is called ‘popularetymology,’ a philological accident which constantlyoccurs in mythology and geography. A name passingfrom a language to another keeps nearly the samesound and the same appearance, but it undergoesa change just sufficient to give it a sense in the languageof the people who have adopted the word. Thenew sense may be totally different from the original” (Egyptologist Edouard Naville). In the Testament of Joseph (1st century BC), it describes the struggle Joseph had with Potiphar’s wife, and she lived in Memphis (verse 3). “And I sought the Lord early, and wept for theEgyptian woman of Memphis...” (verse 12). “Aboutthat time the Memphian wife of Potiphar...” (verse 14). “Now the Memphian woman was...” (verse 16). “Now the Memphian woman pointed me out to herhusband…." And when Joseph was set free from prison, he lived at Memphis because he worked for the king of Egypt. (Though Joseph was close by Israel (Genesis 45:10), he did not live in the land of Goshen.) It is reasonable to believe that a man of Joseph’s stature in Egypt would have been given a burial in a place of honor, “He [Joseph] was buried in thesepulcher of the kings” (Babylonian Talmud, 3rd century AD). Legends of the Jews said, “Moses knew that he [Joseph] had beeninterred in the mausoleum of the Egyptian king.” Succoth is not some question mark out on the desert but a royal necropolis. But the other routes place it a day’s journey east from the Delta and out on the desert, and they do not have a place for a major burial ground, as was Saqqara. Succoth was the first encampment Israel came to. There are seventeen more encampments we have worked out for the route of the Exodus, in the order as given in the Bible, that are in our book EXODUS, THE ROUTE * SEA CROSSING * GOD'S MOUNTAIN.

Exodus 14:2 says,“Speak unto the children of
Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over
against Baal-zephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.” Numbers 33:7–8
says, “And they removed from Etham, and turned again unto Pi-hahiroth, which
is before Baal-zephon: and they pitched before Migdol. And they departed from before Pi-hahiroth, and passed through
the midst of the sea….” Israel went into the sea “before” or in
front of Pi-hahiroth, so the sea was between Israel and Pi-hahiroth.
In order for Israel to have entered the sea in front of Pi-hahiroth,
Pi-hahiroth must have been on the other side of the sea from Israel. And
Israel was said to have been “between” Migdol (The Great Pyramid) and the sea.
Jewish legends that follow will show that Migdol and Baal-zephon were on the
same side of the sea as Israel and also in back of Israel. The order of
their locations would have been first Migdol and Baal-zephon, then Israel, the sea, and Pi-hahiroth. As to Migdol being the Great Pyramid, its
location, as well as the location of each of the other sites,
would fit with the Bible and Jewish traditions. The Legends of the Jews said,
“Pharaoh is behind my flock Israel, in the south is Baal-zephon,
in the north Midgol, and before us the sea lies spread out.”
Only Pi-hahiroth was not mentioned in this legend because it was on the other
side of the sea from Israel. Baal-zephon (Sphinx) was said to have been
in the “south,” and Migdol (Great Pyramid) was said to have been
in the “north.” The Great Pyramid is northeast of the Sphinx, but Legends of the Jews did not say that
Migdol was north of Baal-zephon, only that it was north in relation
to the camp of Israel. The positions of
the Sphinx, Great Pyramid, the flooded Nile, and Kherahau all
match up with the positions and points of compass for Migdol, Baal-zephon, the
sea, and Pi-hahiroth.

﻿﻿Migdol. This name is found seven times in the Bible and Strong’s #4024 says “Migdol for tower.” It is translated “tower” three times in the Bible (but never translated fort); the other four times it is not translated and simply given as “Migdol,” as it is found in the Exodus account (Exodus 14:2 and Numbers 33:7). The ancient Egyptian name for a pyramid was Mir; it was the Greeks who first started calling them pyramids, hundreds of years after the time of the Exodus. So the Hebrew Bible is not going to use the Greek name to describe them. For the Jews, it was Migdol, a tower; they were simply calling it by what it looked like to them, as we would say the Eiffel Tower. Ezekiel, a Jewish poet (2nd century BC), called the pyramids “towers.” As did Pliny the Elder (Roman author, 1st century AD), who, when talking about the pyramids of Egypt, said, on the “Libyan side, are the towers known as the Pyramids.” (Again, footnotes are in the book.)

Baal-zephon. Strong’s #1168 gives “Lord” for Baal and #6828 “north” for zephon, or “Lord of the north.”
Baal-zephon was the god of the Assyrians and Phoenicians and was worshipped in
Canaan. The center of worship for Baal-zephon was in Syria at Mount Aqraa at
the mouth of the Orontes River. Baal-zephon was associated with the sea and
believed to have been a protector of mariners. The Sphinx, being situated at
the apex of the Delta, where all shipping of the branches of the Nile would
have to pass, would have been the expected setting for such an idol. The
children of Israel were familiar with Baal-zephon from their time in Canaan
before they came to Egypt, and one would expect the Israelites to use a name they
were familiar with. Just as the Egyptian god Amun was called by the Greeks,
Zeus and by the Romans, Jupiter, so the Sphinx was called Baal-zephon by the
Jews. (Some believe the word zephon should be translated as hidden, destroyer, destruction, etc., but in the Hebrew Scriptures the word zephon (Strong’s #6828) is found 153 times, and 116 times it is translated “north,” and all the other times it is either “northward,” “north side,” “northern,” or “north wind.” The name Baal-zephon is given three times in the Bible and all three are at the Red Sea crossing. Some believe this site was a city, while others believe it was an idol. Josephus did not say that Baal-zephon was a city, but only called it a “place.”“[O]n the third day they came to a place calledBeelzephon….” Other Jewish sources say that Baal-zephon was an idol: “before the idol Zephon” (Targum Jonathan also Targum Onkelos, both 3rd century AD). Remember, Legends of the Jews said that Pharaoh “hastened to offer sacrifices to him [Baalzephon]….” And the Sphinx was an idol the Egyptians worshiped, not a monument; the Dream Stele (Sphinx Stele, 1400 BC) has Pharaoh Thutmoses IV “bearing great offerings” to the Sphinx. There is a section in Legends of the Jews that explains how Baal-zephon could be both an idol and a place. This passage is interesting because of light it shines on this and other matters dealing with this location. “Moses…gave the signal to turnback to Pi-hahiroth. Those of little faith among theIsraelites tore their hair and their garments in desperation, though Moses assured them that by theWord of God they were free men, and no longerslaves to Pharaoh. Accordingly, they retraced theirsteps to Pi-hahiroth, where...the great sanctuary ofBaal-zephon was situated.” First, we see that the Israelites were to “turn back” to Pi-hahiroth, even saying they “retraced theirsteps to Pi-hahiroth,” ending up where they started. Notice the children of Israel were not happy with this news, “tore their hair and their garments in desperation”; they thought they were going to become slaves again. This could only be because they were headed back to where they had been, Egypt, but “Moses assured them that by the Word of God theywere free men and no longer slaves to Pharaoh.” We also find here a “sanctuary of Baal-zephon,” so it was a place, but a place for an idol and its temple. And today, the remains of the Temple of the Sphinx are directly in front of the Great Sphinx. (All the other routes have their locations for Baal-zephon, at the least, one day away from where they would have Israel start her journey. The other routes do not have Israel "turnedagain” (Numbers 33:7, more in our book on this), unto where she had been, at Pi-hahiroth﻿﻿. This return gave the impression they had failed in their exodus (Exodus 14:2) from Egypt and had to go back to where they started from. God wanted to entice Pharaoh into following Israel, and Pharaoh fell for it! The legends preserved by the Jews make an interesting comment about this idol. “Of set purpose God had left Baalzephonuninjured, alone of all the Egyptian idols.He wanted the Egyptian people to think that this idolwas possessed of exceeding might, which it exercisedto prevent the Israelites from journeying on” (Legends of the Jews, III, Pharaoh Pursues the Hebrews; also Targum Jonathan, Exodus XIV). We see that it was an “Egyptian” idol, and that God was letting the “Egyptian” people trust in it—they were in Egypt! Baal-zephon could not have been some carry-around idol that was set back up, for of necessity it would have been very large, for it was used as a landmark for a nation. And as quoted above, the reason Baal-zephon was still standing was to give Pharaoh a false hope in this idol. Therefore, the Sphinx would be the only possibility for Baal-zephon, for all believe it was standing when the children of Israel left Egypt. What other idol could it have been? These Jewish sources just quoted said Baal-zephon was the only one left. It was and is still there!

Why did the Jews use the Canaanite deity of Baal-zephon to identify with the Sphinx and not one of the other gods of the Canaanites? It is not sure what name the Egyptians originally called the Sphinx, but by 1450 BC, if not before, it had become associated with the Egyptian god Horus, and the Sphinx was called “Horus of the Horizon.” Remember, the name Baal-zephon means “lord of the north.” Pharaohs who ruled
the two lands (northern and southern Egypt) could show this by wearing the
double crown, which had emblems of the north and south. Or they could wear both
the vulture (symbol of the south) and the cobra (symbol of the north) on their headdress, as is seen on King Tutankhamun’s
grave mask.

The Uraeus, or cobra, was the symbol of northern Egypt. On the upper forehead of the Sphinx is clearly seen the Uraeus, or cobra, and it is made from the stone of the Sphinx itself. The tail of the cobra is missing today; perhaps it once sat on the head of the Sphinx, but the outline of the cobra, though defaced, is still seen on the front of the Sphinx. The head part of this cobra has been broken off, as have the nose and false beard. However, the two-foot limestone piece with the eyes and mouth of the Sphinx’s cobra was found between the paws of the Sphinx and is now in the British Museum (#1204). It is has the dimensions of: length, 59 centimeters; width, 33 centimeters; height, 30 centimeters. Since the Sphinx only had the cobra (Uraeus) as a permanent part of it, and therefore was a symbol of northern Egypt, it was a clear sign to all that the Great Sphinx was ruling thenorth, and to the Hebrews, this was Baal-zephon, “Lord of the north”!

Did the ancient Egyptians
leave an account of the Red Sea (Yam Suf) crossing? There is an Egyptian legend about a
battle between two of their gods, and in this particular battle, the “good
god,” who represents Egypt, loses, and the “bad god,” who represents the
foreigners, wins, and it takes place at the bottom of the sea! This was
said to have happened in the Nile, and what is of more interest is that this
takes place right in front of the four place names of Exodus 14:2, as given in our book EXODUS! But it has been passed over because today people are looking to the
Isthmus or the Gulf of Suez, or the Gulf of Aqaba, not the flooded Nile, for
the sea crossing. “If you start in the wrong place, you will look, search
and go to the….” Pi-ha-hiroth.Kheroth, from Pi-ha-hiroth, is the location of the drowning of Pharaoh’s army, and Kher-aha (directly across from the Sphinx) is also given in Egyptian texts as the site of a major battle between their gods. The Egyptian name Kher-aha means “battleground,” and it received this name because of the battle between *Horus and Seth. In Egyptian mythology, Horus was the “good guy” and Seth was the “bad guy” (for that time). These conflicts between their gods are looked upon as struggles between kings and countries. And pharaohs were always associated with the god Horus as the defenders of Egypt, and all pharaohs were given a “Horus name.” The god Seth, on the other hand, was the enemy of Horus, the god of the desert, chaos, storms, and the god of foreigners. Originally, Seth was considered a good god but became demonized during the time of the hated foreign Hyksos rulers (1620–1530 BC), because the Hyksos only worshipped the Egyptian god Seth. What follows is an account of this legend given about 1150 BC, which had been copied from earlier manuscripts. The Contendings of Horus and Seth. “Thereupon Seth said to Horus: 'Come, let's…submerge in the deep waters in the midst of the sea. Now as for the one who shall emerge within the span of three whole months, the office should not be awarded him.” The text goes on and has Isis, the mother of Horus, hurling a harpoon into the water to hit Seth, but by mistake it hits her son Horus, whom she brought up to the surface of the water; she then repeated this and hits Seth. She would have been expected to turn Seth over to her son, Horus, but instead lets him go free. “Horus, son of Isis, became furious at his mother Isis….He removed the head of his mother Isis…” (Chester Beatty, Papyrus I). There are many variations of The Contendings of Horus and Seth. There are a few accounts that do not mention them being in the water, though most have them “submerged” under the “sea,” “lake,” “Nile,” “great deep,” or “flooded” river. Horus’ mother, Isis, is said to have accidentally harpooned first Horus (representing the Egyptians), bringing him to the surface, and then Seth (representing foreigners, in this case, Israel). But Israel was not hurt by the Red Sea crossing. Perhaps this was the only way the ancient Egyptians could explain how Horus could lose and Seth escape, blame it onMom! Some accounts say they were to submerge for “months” or “days,” but Isis brought them both up early. Josephus said Israel left Letopolis from the area where the fort called Babylon would be built, and the Bible tells us they “turned againunto Pi-hahiroth…” (Numbers 33:7. Pi-ha is believed to be Hebrew, and hiroth Egyptian). Pi-ha-hiroth and Fort Babylon should, therefore, be in the same place, and they are! Strong’s tells us the Hebrew letters for hiroth is pronounced as khe-roth (khrth). And amazingly, this is the ancient name of the area where Fort Babylon was constructed! Before there was a fort called Babylon, the Egyptians called this site Kher-aha (khrh) (also spelled Kher-ahau (khrh), vowels are conjecture). The ancient Egyptians were telling us something by these accounts they recorded, and this one in particular fits with the sea crossing of Israel! But what is more interesting is where this underwater battle takes place, in front of the four place names as given in Exodus 14:2.“According to the legend given in the Fourth Sallier Papyrus, the fight between Horus and Set…was fought in or near the hall of the lords of Kher-aha(across from the Sphinx) near Heliopolis and in the presence of Isis, who seems to have tried to spare both her brother Set and her son Horus. For some reason Horus became enraged with his mother, and attacking her like a ‘leopard of the south,’ he cut off the head of Isis”(Egyptologist Wallis Budge). As anyone can see, this Sallier Papyrus refers to the battle we have been talking about, as Horus “cut off the head of Isis.”

The Red Sea crossing is the climax of Israel’s flight out of Egypt. Now with what has been said, can you imagine a more dramatic place to work the greatest miracle in the Hebrew Scriptures? At that moment in history, Egypt was the superpower of the world, with the most wealth and greatest landmarks on earth. I believe God saved the miracle of the Red Sea crossing for the area Egyptians most prided themselves in. Right in front of Egypt’s greatest symbols, the Nile, the Sphinx, and the Great Pyramid, with Israel fleeing from Pharaoh and the Egyptian troops going down into the midst of the sea. If you have ever seen a picture of the pyramids lit up at night, it is quite impressive. Even with the rugged stones on the outside of the pyramids, pictures can still be projected onto their sides, and the Sphinx lit up in different colors. But thirty-five hundred years ago the pyramids would have had all their smooth facing stones on them. And the Sphinx would have had its nose, false beard, and the rest of the cobra on its head, proudly painted and crouched beside the Great Pyramid. And on the night (Exodus 14:21, Exodus 14:24, 27, and Exodus 13:21)of the Red Sea crossing there was a thunder and lightning show (Psalm 77:17–29) that would have lit them up. It would not be hard to imagine the wind blowing the sand through the air and the loud thunder claps, with the Giza plateau lighting up from God’s “arrows.” But Egypt saw her slaves getting away and foolishly put her trust in the Sphinx and descended into the Red Sea on a path made for someone else. By the end of the morning watch the thunder and lightning would have subsided, as would the wind, but each remaining lightning strike would still have lit up Migdol and Baal-zephon. However, these proud landmarks could not help the Egyptians, but did what rocks have always done...

See video (8 min) below about the sea crossing and the four place names of Exodus 14:2.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross, there were two other men who died that day. And both had broken the 8th commandment, “Thou shalt not steal”. Jesus took one to Heaven, but not the other. What made the difference? They both believed Christ existed, for they both talked to him, but only one of them trusted Christ for salvation. This was the one who recognized he was a sinner, and deserved the punishment of his crime, for he said, “we receive the due reward of our deeds….” He did not make excuses for his sins but looked to Jesus, the only one who could forgive him, and put his faith in Christ, and asked the Lord to save him. “And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43) Say to Jesus, “Lord remember me, I want to come into your kingdom when I die. I ask you to save my soul, and please forgive all my sins. I want you to live your life in me.” “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13).

Other routes. There are some
times our book will show why the other routes, location of the sea crossing, or a
different Mount Sinai will not work, but by and large,
I will be concentrating on our route and location for Mount Sinai. Still, I
must address something here, in regards to a picture that has been circulated
of a golden chariot wheel. It was said to have been found lying on the bottom of the
sea in the Gulf of Aqaba and is used to prove that Israel crossed there. This picture was taken by the same
man who claims to have found a sample of the literal “blood of Christ”! And he said it only had “twenty-four
chromosomes” (forty-six is the norm), but no one is allowed
to do any independent research on this blood sample. This is also the same
person who claims to have found the “Ark of the Covenant,” and said he “gave”
it to the Israeli government, but they deny this.

There is more in this book than place
names, so those who are not interested in considering another route should
still be interested in the arguments given here, as I guarantee that a
number of these arguments will not be found anywhere else! A couple of the place names from the encampments of Israel's wilderness journey could have been found in most of the deserts in the Middle East, though it would be rare to find two of these names together in the order as given in the Bible. And this is in reference to the more common names, but finding a place named “Knocking” (Dophkah), or a place to “knead bread” (Alush), or “pomegranate of the breach” (Rimmonparez), these names are so rare that the only time they are given in the Hebrew Scriptures is for the route of the Exodus! The encampments of the children of Israel are found in their proper order, with a reasonable distance traveled between them, an accessible route for a multitude with “wagons” (Numbers 7:3–8), a logical direction, and even falling on a known ancient route! (I was not zigzagging my way through the desert trying to pick up place names.) I do not see how one could claim that these sites are only a coincidence, especially when taken together. If you like “thinkingoutside the box” and are not shackled by the status quo, then you will, I believe, find this refreshing, thought provoking, filled with new ideas, and backed up with sound reasons, ancient texts, and biblical references.

Part II (pages 143-340) of our book EXODUS is dedicated to the nation of Israel.

Thank
you Israel for preserving the first and second commandment (Deuteronomy 5:7–10),
without which the world would still
be worshiping a multitude of gods and their idols. To Israel, through a prophet, God proclaims a blessing. “Blessed
is he thatblesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee” Amen! (Numbers 24:5–9).

A pharaoh of Egypt went to Mount Sinai and engraved his named there!
In December 2013, two years after EXODUS was first published, an
inscription made by a King of Egypt was found at Mount Gharib, which I have
proposed as Mount Sinai. And in 1882 a hieroglyphic
inscription was found in the East Nile Delta, also made by a king of Egypt,
describing an expedition to a location the scholars have hotly debated. But the
location is now confirmed, for the same king made both inscriptions, and he
found something there that only Israel could have left. More about this further
on.

Three Muslim sites in a row bear witness to Moses being on this route. There is no other Mosque of Moses in Egypt.Traditions. Besides archaeology and history, there are traditions to consider. In truth, traditions are not the most trustworthy sources and may have been created simply to help out the local tourism industry. I once heard a certain city in Europe claimed to have “all seventeen graves” of the original twelve apostles! So though I was not looking for any signs that said “Moses slept here,” still, traditions are expected to have been passed down if one has the right route for the Exodus, and there are more traditions for this route than all the others put together!

ELIM “[F]ountains, which were in number twelve: they were rather a few moist places than springs, which not breaking out of the ground, nor running over, could not sufficiently water the trees. And when they dug into the sand….they found it to be useless, on account of its mud.” (Josephus. Antiquities III, 1, 3, & Legends of the Jews, The Awful Desert). The Bible said Elim had twelve wells, the Bedouins said there were, “Twelve, plus one or minus one.” The site is over a mile square, with many of them being what they called “wet sand”, like Josephus who called them “moist places…”

Please see "Maps of Elim" at the top of page. If
you use the zoom in feature you can count over 70 palm trees at this site,
and 12 groups of palm trees, where water comes
up through the ground. Sir Wilkinson had said that though one can find
small trees out on the desert with no apparent source of water, it was
not so when speaking about the palm tree. “I
never saw or heard of any palms but near water; though in many vallies
of the primitive mountains there are innumerable seyale, tamarisk, and
other trees, the palm we never found but at the watering-places
themselves.” (Sir Wilkinson, British Egyptologist)

“And
they removedfrom
the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibrothhattaavah”“("gravesof lust”, Strong’s #6914). “And he called the name of
thatplace Kibroth-hattaavah: because there they buried the
people thatlusted” (Numbers 11:34). “Therefore
the LORD heard this, and was wroth: soa fire was kindled
against Jacob" (Psalms
78:15–31, God cremated them!). This is the only time
in their forty years of wandering that the Bible mentions the Israelites
burying their dead (except for Moses, Aaron and Miriam, because of who they
were), no other mass graves are mentioned. Those
who were buried at the “Gravesof Lust” had been burned to death. Sir
John Gardner Wilkinson, who explored them in 1823. “We met with nothing
interesting along this flatshore till we arrived at the low hills of
Wady Girfe...a small knoll containing eighteen excavatedchambers, besides,
perhaps, many others, theentrances of which are no longer visible. We
went intothose where the doors were the least obstructed bythe sand...We sought in vain for inscriptions or
hieroglyphics;our
curiosity was only rewarded by findingthe scattered fragments of vases,
bitumen, charcoal,and cloth. It is evident that the bodies were
burnt,and the ashes, after the usual ceremony of
bathingand wrapping them in these cloths, were probablydeposited
in the vases, of which innumerable brokenremains are seen in every
direction."

I had the pottery dated using thermoluminescence (TL) and accelerator
mass spectrometry (AMS). I had hoped AMS technicians might find some carbon
material, such as a twig imbedded in the clay of the pottery and thus establish
a radiocarbon date for that time period, but none was found. (AMS testing
January 2, 2013, Beta Analytic Inc., Miami, Florida.) Thermoluminescence
gives the approximate date by heating a sample with a laser. The
luminescence the pieces give off can then be measured to give the date
of its last firing (when it was made). There were three laboratories the pieces were sent too, and all three were told
the pieces were found in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.The oldest date came from the laboratory in France which
gave 3,230 years old or 1230 BC, with plus or minus 310 years, or about 10
percent margin of error, between 920 BC and 1530 BC (December 16, 2010, Ciram,
Centre d’Innovation et de Recherche pour l’Analyse et le Marquage).“And
they departed from Kibroth-hattaavah, and
encamped at Hazeroth” (Numbers 33:17).

Monastery of Paul, less than ten miles from the "catacombs"of Sir Wilkinson.

At the Monastery of St. Paul, there is a tradition that says the sister of Moses washed in a pool there during the time of the Exodus, called the "pool of Miriam." It was at the encampment Hazeroth, which followed Kibroth-hattaavah (Numbers 33:17), where Miriam was struck with leprosy. It is of interest that this tradition from

Author with monk from the Monastery of St. Paulthe Monastery of St. Paul (also from ancient Arab writers) makes no mention of anyone else in the camp of Israel doing this, not even Moses or Joshua or Aaron, but only Miriam, the one person who was struck with leprosy at Hazeroth (Numbers 12:15). And according to the Bible (Leviticus 14:9), she would have been required to wash both her clothes and herself in water (“Pool of Miriam”) before re-entering the camp.

The location of Mount Sinaiwas
by the country of Troglodytes, near the land of Midian, and in
Arabia. The first one is given to us by Josephus (1st
century, Antiquities, II, 11:1–2, and
the other two come from the Bible, Exodus 2:15, Galatians 4:﻿25).

Where was the country of
Troglodytes? “Between Egypt and the Red Sea were nations of Arabians called
Troglodyte…” (Sir Isaac Newton, 17th century, mathematician,
astronomer, also Diodorus and Strabo, quotes in our book.) Josephus, when giving the account of Moses
meeting the daughters of Jethro (the priest of Midian, Exodus 3:1),
said, “These virgins, who took care of their father’s flocks, which sort of
work it was customary and very familiar for women to do in the country of the
Troglodytes….”“And the sons of Midian; Ephah, and Epher,and
Hanoch, and Abida, and Eldaah.” (Genesis
25:4). Please observe the difference in spelling when hundreds of years later
Josephus, writing in the Greek language, quoted from this same passage, “The
sonsof Madiauwere
Ephas, and Ophren, and Anoch,and Ebidas, and Eldas. Now, for all these
sons andgrandsons, Abraham contrived to settle them in colonies;and
they took possession of Trogodytes, andthe country of Arabia the
Happy, as far as it reachesto the Red Sea.” There are a
few who have thought Josephus was saying that Troglodytes was in the country of
“Arabia the Happy,” which is on the east side of the Red Sea. But he
said that Abraham’s descendants through Keturah “took possession ofTrogodytess,
and the country of Arabia the Happy….” He is saying they became two
countries: Troglodytes and Arabia the Happy. From the Scriptures we see
that the Midianites lived in different locations. Israel, during the Exodus,
left the Midianites, who dwelled close by Mount Sinai (Exodus 3:1, 18:1–5), and
some Midianites departed with Israel (Judges 1:16, Numbers 10:29–32). And on
their way to the Promised Land, they met up with a group of Midianites who were
allied with Moab against them (Numbers 22:3–7). In I Kings 11:17–18, some
Edomites fled to Egypt, and we are told they “arose out of Midian,” then
to Paran and then to Egypt. If one insists that Midian was only in Saudi
Arabia, then these men from the land of Edom made a pointless trip, far out of
their way, to go to Egypt.
﻿
Pliny (Roman author, 1st century) also
said the Troglodytes lived on the west side of the Gulf of Suez
and added that “Trogodytice, the old Midoen,
some Midioen.”(Spelled Madian in the New Testament, Acts 7:29.) Josephus (1st century), writing in Greek, spells the name of Midian as “Madiau” (Antiquities, I, 15, 1); Pliny (1st century), writing in Latin, spells the name as Midoen or Midioen. And both say the Midianites lived among the Troglodytes.

Paul said that Mount Sinai was in Arabia (Galatians 4:25). The question is not where Saudi Arabia is, but where was Arabia? And the Arabians lived in different locations (II Chronicles 26:7), as “the Arabians, that were near the Ethiopians” (Chronicles 21:16. This would be the Eastern Desert). The classical writers said the ridge above the Nile, on the east, was “Arabia” (given above). I am not saying the name Arabia was confined only to the Eastern Desert of Egypt, but it was included in this area. And even today most maps name Egypt’s Eastern Desert the “Arabian Desert.” ﻿ (The Eastern Desert of "Egypt" was not part of Egypt when the Bible was written.)

Question. “But wouldn’t Mount Sinai be in the Sinai Peninsula?” The classical writers called the Peninsula “Arabia.” Historically, there is no record of either the peninsula or a mountain in this area being called Sinai before the 3rd century after Christ.When Elijah came to Mount Sinai, he stayed in a cave, but God twice asked him, “What doest thou here, Elijah?” Then He sent Elijah back to serve Him by ministering to others and telling them what God had said.

Water erosion marks in the granite gullies of Mount Gharib.

Should we find water erosion
marks from the rock that Moses struck at Horeb (Exodus
17:6)? I do not see how water erosion marks can be used as evidence
that one has the right spring of Moses. Water erosion marks can be found
all over the desert! In the Eastern Desert of Egypt it seldom rains, but
when it does it pours. These flash floods are what cause the
wadis in the desert and they are found around every mountain. Water erosion marks can also be found in the granite gullies of
Mount Gharib, as they could at any mountain in the area. At the Gharib Mountain Range
there is the “Fount of theSalve” (Hem-t-elabd,
Wilkinson translation), and this may preserve the event described in
Exodus, but to point to water erosion marks is not evidence. Nor is a
picture of a large, split rock. Legends
of the Jews (vol. III, Miriam’s Well) makes the rock out to be
something small. The Bible does not tell us how large
the rock was, but split rocks can be found anywhere!

Would
it hurt your eyes to look at Mount Sinai? Sounds like a strange question, but Josephus
said of Mount Sinai, “indeed, it cannot
be looked at without pain of the eyes.” (Antiquities III, 5, 1. There is more about this in our book EXODUS
but I give here an abbreviated part.) The
classical writers talk of such a mountain. Diodorus (1st century BC)
said, “first of all we shall take the
right side, the coast of which is inhabited by tribes of the Trogodytes as far
inland as the desert. In the course of the journey, then, from the city of
Arsinoê along the right mainland, in many places numerous streams, which have a
bitter salty taste, drop from the cliffs into the sea. And after a man has
passed these waters, above a great plain there towers a mountain whose
colour is like ruddle and blinds the sight of any who gaze steadfastly upon it
for some time.” (Diodorus, History,
III, 39, 1). Strabo (1st century AD, Greek geographer) said, “As one sails from the City of Heroes along
the Troglodytic country, one comes to a city Philotera…Then to another city,
Arsinoê. Then to springs of hot water, salty and bitter, which flow down a high
rock and empty into the sea. Near by, in a plain, is a mountain which is
of a red colour like minium.” (Strabo, Geography, XVI, 4, 5). In
both accounts of Diodorus and Strabo, the mountain was said to be in a plain.
Mount Gharib sits in the middle of an eighty by fifteen-mile desert, and is by
far the most notable mountain in that whole area. Diodorus added that in this “great plain theretowers a mountain” (the one that “blinds the sight”); this would definitely fit Mount Gharib. Both Diodorus and Strabo said it was as a bright rust-colored
mountain, “colour is like ruddle” (red
iron ore), and “a red colour like
minium” (red lead). However, most ancient geographers
do not mention this blinding rust-colored mountain. During the time I was at
Mount Gharib, including driving around it once, I only noticed this red color
one time, and it was not bright. But it depends on the angle of the sun and how
clear the sky is. When the sun shines directly on it the color will be grey and often there are sandstorms that cover the mountain in dust. In 1937, an archaeologist named G.W. Murray climbed Mount
Gharib and said, “All the massif…is
composed of a beautiful red
granite, which glows at sunrise and sunset like a red-hot iron.” So this could only be seen in the morning
and evening. There is a pictures of Mount Gharib on the
Internet as a bright rust-colored mountain. It is possible Mount Sinai may have
been named after the appearance of red clay, “clayey” (Sinai). It
is interesting that Josephus said that Mount Sinai, which he located near the
country of Troglodytes, would hurt your eyes to look upon, and Diodorus also said that sailors off the coast
of Troglodytes saw a mountain that hurt their eyes. I cannot remember anyone ever saying that about a mountain before.

A pharaoh
of Egypt came to Mount Gharib!In December
of 2013, an Egyptian man, Mr. Hosam Mosa, found a Greek inscription at Jebel
Gharib. This discovery was two years after our book Exodus was published. I was surprised by the inscription for
two reasons. First, it was right next to the mountain (less than a hundred
feet) on a large boulder situated where Jebel Gharib starts its abrupt and
steep climb upward, positioned on the southeast side. Second, it was not a few scratches but a real inscription (31 letters).
It was obviously old and he had to point it out to me twice before I began to
make out the letters. As will be seen, the pharaoh who had this inscription
made would not have stayed long at Mount
Gharib. He took what he wanted and left. He did not have the time to make a
finished stone with the engraving that he did later, so he used the rough
surface of a granite boulder. If
someone thinks such inscriptions are found all over the Egyptian desert, he is
mistaken. Over 99 percent of Egyptian inscriptions were found in the Delta and
Nile Valley. Wadi Hammamat, about a hundred and fifty miles south of Mount
Gharib, has two-hundred inscriptions but outside of that location they are rare
and even
more rare to find the name of a Pharaoh. Pictures will follow, first from a distance and later close-ups. The first
picture will have the area of the inscription highlighted by a white rectangle.

“King Ptolemy Son of
Ptolemy” was the title and name of the second king in the Ptolemaic (Greek) Dynasty (Ptolemy II also know as Philadelphus).
Alexander the Great had conquered Egypt in 332 BC, and after his death his
kingdom was dived among his four generals, with Ptolemy I Soter taking Egypt. Again there is too much to give here so what follows is our "appetizer."

Would you like to help put a puzzle together? What was Ptolemy Philadelphus doing at Mount Gharib? He wanted others to know he was there; he left his title and name engraved in granite. There had to be a reason he went to such an out-of-the-way place. In 1882, Swiss Egyptologist Edouard Naville excavated a site east of the Nile Delta that he named Pithom. He found, among other things, a stele he said was “the largest and most important monument discovered” at the site. He called it “the great inscription of Ptolemy Philadelphus,” the same king who engraved his name at Mount Gharib. The main criticism of this stele was the poor quality of the engraving in certain lines. But the area of interest for our search, which is the main place name “Prstt,” had no problem with the engraving, however there is an argument over its interpretation. Edouard Naville said the stele was “intended to be an important historical record of certain acts of the second Ptolemy.” And the stele has dates given of events that took place under the rule of Ptolemy II. This is the type of register that we should look to find out what he did, where, when, and why. I will give the interpretation of line 11, our area of interest, which was worked on by archaeologist Edouard Naville and German Egyptologist Heinrich K. Brugsch (author of several important works on Egypt and hieroglyphics).

“…His Majesty [Ptolemy II Philadelphus Line 11] went to Teshiit at the entrance of the South. He reached the land of Persia, and found the gods of Egypt, all of them. His Majesty brought them to Egypt. They came with King Ptolemaeus to Khemtit, and they protected His Majesty going to Egypt. They were received by the inhabitants of Egypt, full of joy at the arrival of these gods.”

There are three problem place names in line 11: “Teshiit,” “Persia,” and “Khemtit,” with the main problem being “Persia.” Persia was the focus of the text and the only name mentioned where something happened: Ptolemy II “found the gods of Egypt.” There is no battle mentioned and scholars are puzzled as to how Ptolemy II could have entered a foreign country and raided its temples to recover the idols of Egypt without a war.* These idols were apparently stolen earlier by, archeologists believe, a country powerful enough to have entered Egypt and to have grabbed her idols. But there has been a long debate over whether he went to Persia or Palestine or someplace else. *(Ptolemy II could not have gone to either Persia or Palestine without fighting a war, but he would not have been expected to fight a battle in the Eastern Desert.) The problem was the place name Prstt (transliteration of the hieroglyphs). Most of the scholars believe it to be either Persia or Palestine. The other two names, Teshiit and Khemtit, are usually not mentioned as they are not sure where they are located, and they will concentrate their efforts on the place name Prstt as it was the main focus. There are many other places named on this Pithom Stele, and those who interpret it are all basically in agreement, except the names in line 11. Does it not seem strange that this one line with three place names has produced only two questions marks and an argument? The Scholars are looking in the wrong places! And when they comment on the interpretation of the rest of this stele, they are “amiable” one toward another, that is, except on this one line, line 11, and then the “atmosphere” definitely changes and they become sharp in their criticism. I will share a couple of examples here; Dr. Joachim Friedrich Quack, a scholar of distinction and director of Heidelberg University's Institute of Egyptology, said, “Personally, I think the equation with Palestine is highly dubious, to say the least.” And classical scholar W. W. Tarn and Fellow of the British Academy, said in regards to it being Persia, “this is out of the question…the idea that Ptolemy II circumnavigated Arabia is absurd.” I gave this sampling of the arguments so the reader will catch the tone of the discussion, and more importantly, to see that there is not an agreement, even by the best of scholars on this one line and all three of these place names. As you no doubt have guessed, I do not agree with any of them on the locations they gave for line 11. But I admittedly have a big piece to the puzzle they did not have, Ptolemy’s inscription at Mt Gharib. So I know where he went; I only had to fill in the blanks.

How can the scholars read the same Egyptian
hieroglyphics and one group say the name was Palestine and the other Persia?
The hieroglyphics pictured here are read from right to left and the
transliteration of the hieroglyphs into Roman or Latin letters is Prstt. The
double tt has no sound and is usually
dropped from the word. Therefore, you will find the reading of this place name as Prstt or Prs. Egyptian hieroglyphics are a consonantal language, with the
vowels being conjecture. Also, the r
in Egyptian hieroglyphics was weak, and is often translated as an l. This is why some have Prstt as Plst, and with the vowels added,
Palestine. But both names,
Palestine and Persia, have problems. Prstt
will not give the n sound for Palestine, and Prs will not work with Persia because Ptolemy fought no known
battle there. But both sides have a much bigger problem!

Hey
guys, my compass is pointing in another direction! In line
11 of the Pithom Stele, where we
find the three place names, Teshiit, Prstt, and Khemtit, Ptolemy II said he went to the “South.”
And this will rarely be used by one side or the other as Persia is east and
Palestine is north, not south! But if the directions were not important, they would not have been given. Ptolemy II, who had the Pithom Stele engraved, also engraved his name in granite at Mount Gharib which is south from where the Pithom Stele was found. And though I am not a scholar, I can read those who are, and
support for where I place Prstt comes
from what they have said.
I mention this
because some scholars today say it should not read south at all. What follows
are the hieroglyphs as given by Edouard Naville, exactly as he gave them.
Again, reading from right to left, the first engraved sign was of poor
quality, shown by the semi scratch lines.

The next sign to the left is the sign which is “south.”

Line 11 said that Ptolemy II Philadelphus went
to the south. Diodorus (1st century BC)
said, “For from earliest times until Ptolemy
who was called Philadelphus, not only did no Greeks ever cross over into
Ethiopia, but none ascended even as far as the boundaries of Egypt…but after this
king had made an expedition into Ethiopia” (Diodorus, I,
37). This above quote of Diodorus is not talking about the general of
Ptolemy II who went to Ethiopia to build a city, but it says that Philadelphus
himself went to Ethiopia ("south"). After Ptolemy II found the gods of Egypt in the Eastern Desert, he continued on to Ethiopia.

“Prstt,” the meaning and location. Mount Sinai was in the “wilderness of Sinai” (Exodus 19:1–11), and to find the one would mean that you have found the other. In Chapter Fourteen I gave the name Wady Teeneh for Wilderness of Sinai, which was in the same desert plain that extended to Mount Gharib. And this name Teeneh is only found one time in all the Eastern Desert. Gesenius’ Lexicon gave Sinai as “clayey, miry,” and the place name Sin, from the "wilderness of Sin", means “clay.” The difference between clay and clayey would be similar to the difference between mud and muddy. And at the Egyptian city of Pelusium, where the Arabic name Teen (clay) is placed on the maps, the scholars will place the Hebrew word Sin (clay). But these Arabic words (Teen, Teeneh) seem more closely related than their corresponding Hebrew words (Sin, Sinai), for on the older maps the Arabic words Teen and Teeneh are used interchangeably for the location of Pelusium. From how these words are used, either Teeneh or Teen could be used as the equivalent of Sinai. At any rate Wady Teeneh is the same as the “Wilderness of Sinai.” It was Ptolemy II who went to this Eastern Desert location and left his name there, so he would have used his Greek language (he did not speak Egyptian, nor did his soldiers who were also Greek) to tell the scribe who made the Pithom Stele the name for this desert (“The Wilderness of Clay”). As the scholars believe the names Persia and Palestine were transliterated in the Pithom Stele. And the name for clay in Greek was pēlos (πηλός). There was no l in Egyptian hieroglyphics and was normally transliterated r. That is why many scholars believed Prstt was Palestine, substituting the r for the l. Therefore the Greek word pēlos would be prs (without the vowels) in Egyptian hieroglyphs. And conveniently, the Greek word pēlos is the same word for the Greek-named city of Pelusium (ium was a common ending). So for the name of the same town, the Hebrew was Sin, the Arabic was Teen, and the Greek was Pēlos; in this context for a location they are interchangeable. And as given by Easton’s Bible Dictionary, “called by the Greeks Pelusium, which means, as does also the Hebrew name, ‘clayey’ or ‘muddy,’ so called from the abundance of clay found there.” Wady Teeneh, of our map, would work for the Wilderness of Sinai, which would be the Wilderness of Pēlos (prs), the desert Ptolemy II went to. And the determinative* for Prs was for either a country or desert, “Wilderness of Sinai.” *(Hieroglyphic determinatives have no phonetic value but clarify the meaning.) Because the scholars do not agree as to where Prstt was, it should not be expected they would agree with me, especially since most do not believe in the account of the Exodus. But then they should answer the following: (1) What was Ptolemy II doing in this desert in front of Mount Gharib? (2) If the Pithom Stele is not describing Ptolemy’s expedition to this desert, where his name is inscribed, then where is it recorded in Egyptian records? (3) Because the Pithom Stele said Prs was by the “entrance of the South,” and Ptolemy II went to Khemtit in the south, and Diodorus (also Strabo) said Ptolemy II went to Ethiopia in the south, and Ptolemy Philadelphus’s inscription was found in the south, therefore, where in the south can the place name Prs be found? In the south, please! More is given in our book EXODUS about the place name Prstt, plus the locations of "Teshiit” and “Khemtit,”and they were all in the "south."

What were the gods of Egypt doing in the Sinai Desert? “His Majesty[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]went to Teshiit at the entrance of the South. He reached the land of Prstt [desert of Pēlos], and found the gods of Egypt, all of them. His Majesty brought them to Egypt.” When Israel came out of Egypt, not all of Egypt came out of her. None of the judgments of God on the Egyptians were on the land of Goshen where Israel was, including when God executed judgment on the gods of Egypt, and the Israelites had the idols of Egypt! And when they left on their Exodus journey, they brought the idols of Egypt with them! Ezekiel 20:7–11 says, “Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt. Wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness...."﻿ Where and how did Israel discard these idols? See pages 308-311 of our book EXODUS: The Route, Sea Crossing, God's Mountain!

Was the purpose of Ptolemy’s trip to find idols? Line 11 of the Pithom Stele gives no motive for this trip! David Lorton, in his book The Supposed Expedition of Ptolemy II to Persia, states, “It seems improbable that the primary purpose of the expedition was the recovery of divine images and the text seems to imply that their discovery occurred by chance….” Amen, I could not agree more! We know where Ptolemy II went because he left his name at Mount Gharib. And he told us he “found” lots of Egyptian idols there, and only Israel would have hauled them out to the desert and then left them there. But these idols were only an unexpected side benefit to his expedition. What then was his motive for going there in the first place? Did Israel leave something else there? See pages 312-328 of our book EXODUS: The Route, Sea Crossing, God's Mountain!

This preview was 40 pages long but there are 300 pages more in our book EXODUS: The Route, Sea Crossing, God's Mountain.

In our book EXODUS besides giving more detailed information of the subjects all ready named we answer the following questions. Should we find the twelve pillars that Moses made? Would not the real Mount Sinai have signs of being burnt, and are the Bible scholars right who claim Mount Sinai was an active volcano? Should we find the “sapphire” stones that the seventy elders of Israel saw on Mount Sinai? Was Mount Sinai really the “mountain of God” (Exodus 3:1) or did He have to share it with occult deities? (It is commonly taught that the name Sinai came from a Babylonian moon god, and some of theproposed sites for Mount Sinai were places of worship for pagan gods and covered in pagan symbols.) Would it be wrong to climb this mountain? Why two names for the same mountain (Sinai/Horeb)? Were the eleven days to Kadesh-barnea for Israel or the average person?Why did Elijah need forty days to get to Mount Sinai? Was Mount Sinai the tallest mountain in the area? Could Moses at eighty years of age climb a steep high mountain (Deuteronomy 34:7)? Could Israel have survived in the desert? Where there two Mount Seirs (see our blog)? Where there two locations to the south of Israel named Kadesh (see our blog)? The Scholars say that encampments of such a multitude would have left broken pottery for them to track, but did Israel bring clay pots that are easily broken? What ancient source says she brought metal vessels? Where was the border of southern Israel and the location of Kadesh? How much different where the borders of Egypt, Arabia and the Red Sea in the Days of Moses? Where did Pharaoh live at the time of the Exodus? What is the meaning of Pi-hahiroth? Where in the Bible does it say Israel crossed the Nile River? Did the Midians and the Amalekites live in the Eastern Desert of Egypt? How do we know that the ten plagues that fell on Egypt were supernatural events not natural causes? How did Moses communicate with the multitude that was in the Camp of Israel? Did all ten plagues that fell on Egypt take place within one year or one month? How do we know the 600,000 men of Exodus is to be taken literally? And much more!

Thoroughly Researched, Thoroughly Fascinating "EXODUS: The Route, Sea Crossing, God's Mountain challenges the old theories about the route by which Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. You'll be amused and enlightened as Matheny takes down some of the sacred cows of earlier authors, as effectively as Moses destroyed the golden calf in the wilderness. Wordsmith from GA

Parting the waters at the Pyramids In this fascinating new book G.M. Matheny makes a compelling case for the location of where Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt. And a couple of very important landmarks still standing in Egypt today may mark where it all began. Those two landmarks being the Pyramids and the Sphinx located at Giza in Egypt. And the Bible itself may just in fact mention both of them. John Argubright, author of Bible Believer's Archaeology and creator of BibleHistory.net